Our Mission
Who is missing from the Passover story? How can we learn to see the marginalized person in our sacred texts?
What is Womanist Midrash?
Womanists and feminists ask different questions of a text than do other reads and different questions from each other. And we also ask some of the same questions, and we arrive at similar and dissonant conclusions. Privileging the crossroads between our Afro-diasporic identity (embodiment and experience) and our gender (performance and identity), we ask questions about power, authority, voice, agency, hierarchy, inclusion and exclusion. The readings enrich all readers from any perspective.
Wilda C. Gafney
(ד) וְכָל הַשֶּׁבַח הַזֶּה מִנַּיִן לוֹ, מִשֵּׁבֶט יְהוּדָה, וּמֵהֵיכָן זָכָה לְכָל הַחָכְמָה הַזֹּאת, בִּזְכוּת מִרְיָם, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (שמות א, כא): וַיַּעַשׂ לָהֶם בָּתִּים, וּמָה הָיוּ הַבָּתִּים, בֵּית הַכְּהֻנָּה וּבֵית הַמַּלְכוּת. יוֹכֶבֶד נָטְלָה כְּהֻנָּה וּמַלְכוּת, אַהֲרֹן כֹּהֵן גָּדוֹל, משֶׁה מֶלֶךְ. ... וּמִרְיָם נָטְלָה חָכְמָה, שֶׁהֶעֱמִידָה בְּצַלְאֵל, וְיָצָא מִמֶּנּוּ דָּוִד שֶׁהָיָה מֶלֶךְ, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (דברי הימים א ב, יט): וַתֵּלֶד לוֹ [אפרת] אֶת חוּר, וּכְתִיב (שמואל א יז, יב): וְדָוִד בֶּן אִישׁ אֶפְרָתִי, שֶׁבָּא מִן מִרְיָם שֶׁנִּקְרֵאת אֶפְרָת.
Why did the tribe of Judah attain this level of such praiseworthy enlightenment? In the merit of Miriam! As it says in Exodus 1:21, "And because the midwives [which included Miriam] feared God, G-d established households for them." And what were those houses? The home of the Priesthood and the home of the Kingship. Yocheved carried both Priesthood and Kingship: Her son Aaron was the Priest, and her son Moses was the King ... And Miriam carried Wisdom - she was an ancestor to Bezalel, and Bezalel was an ancestor to David who was King. As it is written in I Chronicles 2:19, "When Azubah died, Caleb married Ephrath, who bore him Hur" and it says in I Shmuel 17:12, "David was the son of a certain Ephrathite," who was born from the line of Miriam, who was called Ephrat.
Wilda C. Gafney, Womanist Midrash, p. 97
Miriam's maturation into womanhood is missing from the Scriptures. She is a child, and then she is an elder woman. In Exodus 7:7, Moses is eighty and Aaron is eight-three when they first enter divine service to demand the release of their people. By any calculation Miriam is at least eight-five and more likely closer to ninety when she leads her people across the Reed (Red) Sea to freedom from slavery. As a girl and later as a woman, Miriam had few real choices in her life, circumscribed as it was by the enslavement of her people. One choice that she seems to have exercised was not to marry, not to give birth, not to offer to the Egyptian empire any children of her body, her womb.
Given the near ubiquity of conjugal partnering in the text, I read the lack of a partner for Miriam as an intentional choice on her part. Miriam's lack of a partner has proved quite vexing for some of her rabbinic interpreters. The rabbis devote no small amount of ink to marrying Miriam off to any number of biblical worthies, most notably Caleb and his brother, in order to trace David to and through her (see Shemot Rabbah 48:4).
Compare Exodus Rabbah and Gafney. Consider:
- Which reading feels more inclusive? (Define inclusive broadly).
- Which reading feels more imaginative? (Assume best intentions in both.)
The Great Offering of Womanist Theology:
SANCTIFIED IMAGINATION
The concept of the sanctified imagination is deeply rooted in a biblical piety that respects the Scriptures as the word of God and takes them seriously and authoritatively. The piety can be characterized by a belief in the inerrancy of Scripture and a profound concern never to misrepresent the biblical texts. In this context the preacher would be very careful to signify that what he or she is preaching is not in the text but is also divinely inspired. ... The sanctified imagination is the fertile creative space where the preacher-interpreter enters the text, particularly the spaces in the text, and fills them out with missing details: names, back stories, detailed descriptions of the scene and characters, and so on.
Gafney, Womanist Midrash, p. 3
Read the following texts. Each is an excerpt from the Haggadah. Ask yourself:
1. Who is not here?
2. How can we reimagine these texts in a way that includes those who are absent?
הָא לַחְמָא עַנְיָא דִּי אֲכָלוּ אַבְהָתָנָא בְאַרְעָא דְמִצְרָיִם. כָּל דִכְפִין יֵיתֵי וְיֵיכֹל, כָּל דִצְרִיךְ יֵיתֵי וְיִפְסַח. הָשַּׁתָּא הָכָא, לְשָׁנָה הַבָּאָה בְּאַרְעָא דְיִשְׂרָאֵל. הָשַּׁתָּא עַבְדֵי, לְשָׁנָה הַבָּאָה בְּנֵי חוֹרִין.
This is the bread of destitution that our ancestors ate in the land of Egypt. Anyone who is famished should come and eat, anyone who is in need should come and partake of the Pesach sacrifice. Now we are here, next year we will be in the land of Israel; this year we are slaves, next year we will be free people.
מַעֲשֶׂה בְּרַבִּי אֱלִיעֶזֶר וְרַבִּי יְהוֹשֻׁעַ וְרַבִּי אֶלְעָזָר בֶּן-עֲזַרְיָה וְרַבִּי עֲקִיבָא וְרַבִּי טַרְפוֹן שֶׁהָיוּ מְסֻבִּין בִּבְנֵי-בְרַק וְהָיוּ מְסַפְּרִים בִּיצִיאַת מִצְרַיִם כָּל-אוֹתוֹ הַלַּיְלָה, עַד שֶׁבָּאוּ תַלְמִידֵיהֶם וְאָמְרוּ לָהֶם רַבּוֹתֵינוּ הִגִּיעַ זְמַן קְרִיאַת שְׁמַע שֶׁל שַׁחֲרִית.
It happened once [on Pesach] that Rabbi Eliezer, Rabbi Yehoshua, Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah, Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Tarfon were reclining in Bnei Brak and were telling the story of the exodus from Egypt that whole night, until their students came and said to them, "The time of [reciting] the morning Shema has arrived."
בְּכָל-דּוֹר וָדוֹר חַיָּב אָדָם לִרְאוֹת אֶת-עַצְמוֹ כְּאִלּוּ הוּא יָצָא מִמִּצְרַיִם, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר: וְהִגַּדְתָּ לְבִנְךָ בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא לֵאמֹר, בַּעֲבוּר זֶה עָשָׂה ה' לִי בְּצֵאתִי מִמִּצְרַיִם. לֹא אֶת-אֲבוֹתֵינוּ בִּלְבָד גָּאַל הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא, אֶלָּא אַף אוֹתָנוּ גָּאַל עִמָּהֶם, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר: וְאוֹתָנוּ הוֹצִיא מִשָּׁם, לְמַעַן הָבִיא אוֹתָנוּ, לָתֶת לָנוּ אֶת-הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר נִשָׁבַּע לַאֲבֹתֵינוּ.
In each and every generation, a person is obligated to see himself as if he left Egypt, as it is stated (Exodus 13:8); "For the sake of this, did the Lord do [this] for me in my going out of Egypt." Not only our ancestors did the Holy One, blessed be He, redeem, but rather also us [together] with them did he redeem, as it is stated (Deuteronomy 6:23); "And He took us out from there, in order to bring us in, to give us the land which He swore unto our fathers."